Today's Top Alzheimer's News

Researchers highlight California's potential to lead the way in brain research, Samuel L. Jackson talks about Alzheimer's devastating impact on his family, and Intel introduces wearable tech to monitor Parkinson's patients (read more).

Must reads

An August 14, 2014 Sacramento Bee opinion piece by Ralph J. Greenspan and A. Paul Alivisatos highlighted California's potential to "lead the way on brain research." According to the authors, "There is a compelling need for major research efforts in neuroscience. Anyone who has been affected – either personally or through family and friends – by conditions such as traumatic brain injury, autism, schizophrenia, depression, stroke or Alzheimer’s disease knows all too well the tragedy and feeling of helplessness that comes with running up against the limitations of current treatment options…Because our state led in foundational research and sparked the BRAIN Initiative, we are poised to lead the nation in the realization of this important goal. We have enough information to begin moving forward and we must. Now is the time, and California is the place to make it happen." Ralph J. Greenspan is director of the Center for Brain Activity Mapping at the University of California, San Diego. A. Paul Alivisatos is director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. They were co-authors of initial proposals for the BRAIN Initiative and Cal-BRAIN.

An August 14, 2014 Hollywood Reporter article and video featured the actor Samuel L. Jackson's personal connection to Alzheimer's, a disease that claimed the life of several of his family members. According to Jackson, "He was my best friend when I was growing up. It was heartbreaking to reach a point where he didn't know who I was..I don't think anybody should suffer the heartbreak of having someone who has nurtured you, taken care of you and loves you reach a point where they can't even call your name."

An August 13, 2014 Reuters article (via Business Insider) reported that "Intel Corp plans to use wearable gadgets such as smart watches to monitor patients with Parkinson's disease and collect data that can be shared with researchers." According to the article, "On Wednesday, the chip maker said it is teaming up with the Michael J. Fox Foundation, established by the actor and Parkinson's sufferer in 2000, to conduct a multi-phase research study of the neurodegenerative brain disease. An estimated 5 million people globally have been diagnosed with Parkinson's, the second-most-common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's."

An August 13, 2014 New York Times opinion piece by the author Rebecca Rotert profiled her struggle to understand her father's Alzheimer's disease. According to Rotert, "I can’t know what his mind feels like, but I keep trying to understand how it operates. I’ve seen images of brains with Alzheimer’s — the frazzled neurons, the moth-eaten hemispheres — and I can’t imagine trying to think, react and remember in this decimated geography."

Why 2020?

USAgainstAlzheimer’s has retained its goal of stopping Alzheimer’s by 2020 rather than endorsing the goal of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease that calls for preventing and effectively treating the disease by 2025. While we support the national plan and its goals, we believe, as most every family touched by Alzheimer’s disease believes, that preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer's by 2025 is simply too long a wait for concrete progress. There are promising avenues of drug discovery and development that will, if successful, deliver a means of slowing or deferring Alzheimer's symptoms by 2020. By voicing the urgency felt by so many families, we will pressure researchers and industry to do all in their power to make that happen.